[US] I'm hesitating launching my own business because I'd lose health insurance for my family. What are my options?
I have everything pretty much ready to launch full time. Time, skills, customers, support from family. But I'd leave my current job behind and with it my family's health insurance for the foreseeable future. I can't afford any of the options I've seen. It's the one thing holding me back. Any ideas for affordable health insurance for startups? If you've been in the same situation, what did you end up doing?
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I can, but it's still outrageously expensive compared to my current situation. It would put a lot of financial stress on us in a situation that's already stressful in every way possible.
I have my own business and buy my health insurance from the marketplace. Yes it's expensive, but at a job that's just part of your salary you never see.
The employer pays half?!
The employer typically pays 73% - 83% according to PeopleKeep
Wow! Companies could sure save a lot of money if they lobbied for single-payer! I wonder why they don't! 🤔
Paying for Healthcare for employees is a way to increase effective compensation while reducing tax burden. By paying for health insurance the company doesn't have to pay payroll taxes for that amount, and it's a business expense that can reduce income tax burdens.
Please forgive my ignorance on the topic. You seem to know a lot about it. Are you saying that they save more money than the insurance costs them?
They don't save more than the cost, but it's cheaper to pay someone 50k salary + 30k benefits than 80k salary.
Okay, thank you. I wasn't sure. Why couldn't they just pay them 50k and lobby for single payer to save money? It seems like you're suggesting that they'd have to raise wages if single payer was implemented? Maybe I'm still confused, because it still seems like they'd save money in the long run?
Single payer is unlikely to save money. The US spends more for everything, the government is not known for being fiscally responsible.
I'm not sure about that, as I've seen conflicting information. Medicare has existed for around 60 years, and not only have patients been more satisfied with their care on average than people with private insurance, the costs have also been lower than private insurance overall. Couple those factors with metrics from the most recent study I was able to find on the cost of single payer, and the picture seems a bit muddier than you're presenting it.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8170543/
https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/how-much-more-than-medicare-do-private-insurers-pay-a-review-of-the-literature/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-care-could-have-saved-more-than-330-000-u-s-lives-during-covid/
https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/yale-study-more-than-335000-lives-could-have-been-saved-during-pandemic-if-us-had-universal-health-care/
Don't you go givin folks ideas, now, whippersnapper!
So you're paying through the nose. Ouch.